


My Best Friend is a Skeleton

by ArceusTheCat



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Am I doing spooptober right?, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hinata is a skeleton, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic kagehina for the soul, T for swears, Westernized
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 02:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArceusTheCat/pseuds/ArceusTheCat
Summary: Tobio Kageyama doesn't like dealing with people. They're loud and confusing. So, instead of walking home on the streets like everybody else, he cuts through the cemetery. Sometimes he does homework there, too, for the peace and quiet. He didn't expect a skeleton to pop out and demand to be friends.





	My Best Friend is a Skeleton

**Author's Note:**

> Westernized since I have no idea what Japanese memorial practices are like. You thought I could only write romantic Kagehina, didn't you? Nope! We need more wonderful platonic relationships out there!
> 
> Plus I am weak for wholesome undead.

Tobio Kageyama is a completely normal person. A typical tween athlete with a mind for game strategy but not so much academics. Totally normal.

Why, then, is he walking through a cemetery in spring?

Simple. It’s quiet and there aren’t other people around to bother him. There’s only headstones, plaques and dirt roads spread through rolling grassy hills, trees and bushes. There’s even a sizeable pond in the middle with water lilies growing in it. It’s a rather peaceful place, only being disturbed by some particularly rambunctious squirrels.

Squirrels are much easier to deal with than people. People suck. They’re noisy, lazy and confusing. Why couldn’t they see that he had their best interests at heart? Why do they complain and say that he’s the unreasonable one?

Sighing, he shakes his head and sits down against a grand old elm. Two completely black squirrels chase each other up and down a neighboring maple. It’s warm with a slight pleasant breeze. Now’s probably a good time to try and do some of that make-up work… even if it does spoil the mood.

-()-

He comes to this tree almost every day now. The last bits of summer’s oppressive heat is finally passing. Fall will be here soon. The final year of junior high. He spots a grey-brown squirrel and tosses it an acorn he found on his walk over here.

“Here’s to hoping for the championship, little buddy.”

The squirrel eyes him and then the acorn before grabbing it and dashing off somewhere.

-()-

They lose. Of course they lose. Stupid team not taking anything seriously! He’s fuming as he stomps into his little spot. The leaves have changed color and some have even fallen by now. Crunching through the leaves relieves some tension. What is he, a little kid…? Well, it could be worse, he supposes. At least they got to the semifinals before everyone let him down.

There’s rustling, much too loud to be a squirrel. Curious, he glances around and blanches at the sight.

A skeleton. An honest-to-goodness skeleton. No flesh, no muscle, just bones and oddly enough tons of curly orange hair on their head.

“I could hear your fuming from six feet under, dude!”

How on Earth does he respond to this? Scream? Call 911? Run away? Nope, he freezes like a deer in the headlights.

“But thanks for watching out for Scrat! He’s been having trouble foraging this summer. I think his foot got infected so he’s been much slower.”

The skeleton keeps coming closer. Their, or possibly his, voice is soft and cheerful. They sound like they’re around the same age as Kageyama but are a good few inches shorter. He’s frozen in place as the skeleton sits right in front of him.

“This has to be the best reaction I’ve gotten yet! Haha, are you stupid or brave, I wonder?”

“Dumbass, don’t call me stupid!”

“Oh, so you can speak. Hello, I’m Shouyou Hinata! Skeleton king of the squirrels!”

This cannot be happening. This is some seriously strange dream or something. For one, skeletons aren’t supposed to have hair or you know, exist at all!

“Oi, I introduced myself so why not you?”

Nope, this is real. Damn it. What did he do to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment?

“Looks like it’s just idiot then.”

“... Tobio Kageyama…”

Somehow the brow-bones extend upwards and the skeleton seems to be… smiling? Even without lips? How does this work?

“Nice to meet ya, Tobio. You’ve been coming here quite a bit recently. Don’t you have anything better to do than hang out with squirrels and the dead?”

“Like you’re not doing the same, dumbass.”

“Hey, at least I have an excuse of being bound here by magic and stuff!”

Magic. Oh, so that also exists now. Why not? The laws of life and death are already being bent so why not throw magic into the mix too?

“Well I’m going to make sure you have a friend and so from now on you’re my friend! Nobody deserves to be friendless.”

“I don’t need friends, though.”

“Too bad! I’ve already made up my mind!”

Shouyou then holds his jaw open. Is he trying to stick his tongue out at Tobio? Wow. Of all possible skeletons to run into he encounters the goofiest possible one. Maybe that’s not so bad. It doesn’t seem like there’s any way to worm out of this relationship so he might as well go with it for now.

Humans do need some social contact, after all.

-()-

It isn’t weird to leap into leaf piles with a skeleton, is it?

Tobio has been coming to the cemetery every day after practice or school. He doesn’t know why, but he actually looks forward to his meeting with the silly skeleton Shouyou. He seems like one of those people that brings life to anyone at any time. Ironic, considering he’s dead, but he obviously doesn’t let that get him down.

Sometimes they walk through the cemetery and he’ll point out all the coolest monuments. Some rich dude even has a dragon as his marker. Yes, it’s large enough to ride and yes, Shouyou pretends to ride it into the Great Skeleton War. Tobio can’t help but crack a smirk at that, sending Shouyou over the moon to finally see him half-smiling.

Apparently his smile is “cute” even though everyone he’s ever talked to says it’s creepy? What a dumbass. He’s stopped smiling because of that creep factor and not really having any reason to smile, but Shouyou extracts smiles and chuckles from him effortlessly.

-()-

Winter is coming soon. All the trees are bare and it’s getting rather cold. The cold has never bothered Tobio. He tends to run hot if anything but then he wonders… Does Shouyou get cold? He is just bones, after all. He makes sure to pack a thermos and some instant hot chocolate that he can make at the end of the day before he visits the skeleton.

As it turns out, skeletons don’t get cold, but appreciate the gesture anyway.

“I can’t really feel the cold. You could say it _goes right through me_!”

That earns him a playful punch in the ribs. Shouyou laughs and it’s probably the purest thing in the world. So cheerful and bright! Tobio laughs in return. Once they’ve settled down, he gladly shares some of the hot chocolate. One would expect it to also go right through him, but it disappears. Huh. Magic is weird.

“That was delicious! Thank you so much!”

And in his usual overexcited way, the skeleton leaps up to give an arm-and-leg hug. He’s light, probably no more than 25 pounds and… surprisingly warm? They’ve touched other times and they’ve been more or less the same temperature but right now he’s significantly warmer, like a cat. Strange…

“I wish that squirrels could have hot chocolate. It’s probably poisonous to them, though… Poor things, never able to drink hot chocolate in the fall…”

It is at that moment that Tobio swears to protect this precious skeleton. He is too good for this world and its evils.

-()-

Winter break. Normally this is the time when everyone goes home to smiling families and home-cooked meals. It’s the time everyone looks forward to but not Tobio. Winter break means a cold, empty house and no practice to pass the time. He’s not lonely. He doesn’t need people around. He hates those sappy Christmas specials with trees and reindeer dancing. Secretly he wonders if he’d like winter break more if he had family to come home to, but he doesn’t care. Really.

Besides, if he had family and friends around, that’d mean he couldn’t visit the dumbass skeleton and build the world’s biggest snow fort with him. And then have a massive snowball fight. And then drink hot chocolate and apple cider in the snow fort.

Everything’s going wonderfully and they do this several days in a row without getting bored until one day Hinata looks apprehensive.

“Hey, Tobio? Don’t you have someone else you’d rather spend Christmas Eve with?”

He adds something, barely above a whisper, but he can hear it clear as the icicles hanging off the greenhouses.

“Someone… _alive_...?”

He marches over. He refuses to see Shouyou so shy. Refuses to let him doubt himself. How does he do so? Initiating contact for the first time with a big hug.

“Damn it Shouyou, you’re the best person I’ve ever known so you’re not allowed to say things like that!”

Being so close he obviously can’t read the skeleton’s expression, but he swears he can feel warmth through his jacket where Shouyou’s arms are wrapped.

-()-

The days are so short in wintertime this far north. Even though they’re past the winter solstice, it still gets dark before six p.m. Tobio doesn’t care, though. He has warm clothing and a reflective vest so early nights don’t impact him. The cemetery is across the street from his house and the main entrance is only a few blocks away.

It’s new year’s eve and of course he’s going to spend it with Shouyou. He even brings his phone to stream the ball drop from New York.

Shouyou, energetic as ever, greets him at the gate.

“Hey buddy! Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

The slight twitch in cheekbones, as he’s learned, is the skeleton’s approximation of a smirk.

“You’re smaller than me so you have no right to talk like that!”

“Come on, clearly I’m the responsible adult out of the two of us!”

“Says the guy who’s declared himself king of the squirrels.”

“They’re so small and soft and need someone looking out for them! They easily mistake poisoned rat bait for food and have you seen what happens to a poisoned rat? Gruesome.”

They then perform their secret handshake because that’s what tween best friends do, right?

“So did you remember your phone? I really want to see the crystal ball drop!”

“Of course, dumbass. It’s the only good thing on TV these days.”

They settle into their giant snow cave. They built it off in the corner, far from the road and away from any monuments so that it won’t get destroyed. Their plan seems to have worked as it’s been three weeks now and everything’s intact. It’s surprisingly cozy. Shouyou informs him it’s because of snow being a good insulator of heat. How he knows this, Tobio has no idea, but he’s probably existed for long enough to learn _something_ , at least.

“Why do they make the big crystal ball for new year’s, anyway?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“What about that goggle thing you have on your phone?”

“You mean Google? Sure.”

Thank goodness for texting gloves! Tobio might be cold-resistant, but he certainly isn’t cold-proof!

“Apparently it’s because some rich guy wanted to make the headquarters of his newspaper special.”

“Typical rich people.”

They laugh and mess around with some cat videos until it’s almost midnight to watch the ball drop. Shouyou ensures that there’s plenty of sound effects added, along with various ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the ball changes color. Either he’s never seen this before or he’s forgotten it because there’s nothing particularly special about this year’s drop.

Still… It’s nice to watch it with someone this time. He can vaguely recall when he was really little possibly watching it with his family, but that doesn’t seem like it could be true. He’s been alone for the holidays for as long as he can remember otherwise so why would he ever have a holiday with family?

That’s the past. The present is here with his best friend, a skeleton. It’s weird having a best friend but from what he can tell from the specials and daytime soap operas and dramas, Shouyou is definitely his best friend.

It feels nice, like hot chocolate on a cold, windy, snowy day.

At first he was scared of having a friend since they seemed like so much work. All those misunderstandings and drama? No thanks. Shouyou’s different, though. Sure, they fight, but their mutual insults of “Dumbass” and “Idiot” don’t have any real bite to them anymore. If anything they’ve become terms of endearment.

Oh gods. Has he been domesticated?

He looks over to see the skeleton almost literally laughing his head off at a kitten running up and down stairs, chasing after a fish on a wand toy. If this is what domestication is like, then maybe it isn’t so bad.

The world feels a whole lot less scary with a dumbass on your side. Even if they are somewhere between life and death.

-()-

Spring is supposed to bring with it renewal and this year it brought betrayal instead. The team betrayed him. They refused to get onto his level. Were they really a team in the first place? Worthless weaklings. All that he wanted was to win and they held him back from that.

Words cannot describe the fury he feels. He sits on his own at the back of the bus on the trip home. As soon as he can, he runs to the cemetery.

Shouyou doesn’t have to ask if he’s okay. He can probably sense the pure hatred radiating off of him. He offers a small, bony hand. Tobio takes it. They head over to the great elm where they first met. They’re silent the whole time. Words are unnecessary at this time.

They sit side-by-side, leaning against the furrowed bark of the elm.

“I heard from the head gardener that this elm is over a hundred years old. It’s rare to find such trees ever since Dutch elm disease came through and wiped most of them out, but this tree was spared. The city took extensive management action by removing all infected trees and treating survivors with insecticides. For a while it looked pretty grim… Entire neighborhoods lie bare.”

He tightens his grip on Tobio’s hand.

“But new trees came in to replace the old. It took decades before the streets became shaded again but it still happened. The city made sure to plant many different kinds of trees, to ensure such a disaster would never happen again.”

Impressive. The story, combined with Shouyou’s soft voice, begins to take off the edge of the deep hurt that was dealt today.

“He’s a pretty nice guy. I met him a long while ago and sure he was scared of me but eventually we started having chats as he worked. I even get to help with the trimming and weeding sometimes! I think he feels bad for me, though. He always has this sad, pitying look in his eyes whenever we talk. I’m glad that you don’t. We’re equals in your eyes, aren’t we?”

Tobio manages a small nod.

“You’re the first person who’s ever looked at me as well, a person. Everyone else has this look of pity and it kills me. Well, not really since I’m already dead, but you get it. They always see me as ‘that poor kid who never got to live and now he’s stuck here forever.’ I hate it. I just want to be me, you know? A big goof who wasn’t done with the world yet so here I am. A skeleton. I’m glad I got to keep my hair at least! That has to be the favorite thing about myself when I was alive.”

He closes his eye sockets and sighs.

“I never told you about when I was alive, have I? I guess you could say I was a pretty normal kid. I made friends easily and was pretty happy all the time. The one thing I didn’t like about myself was how short I was. Mom always had to reach things for me on the high shelves and none of the sports teams would take me. I really wanted to play but they wouldn’t look past my height. I didn’t let that get me down though so I joined the band instead. They didn’t care that I was short and I gotta watch my friends play so it worked out just fine.”

His free hand runs against the elm’s bark, almost like he’s petting the tree.

“One day I was walking home after band practice and there was an adorable kitty on the other side of the road. I had to go over and pet them! It was a small, residential street so I thought I’d be okay to cross in the middle. I didn’t see the car coming and poof! Everything went black. What a lame way to die. Run over trying to pet a cute cat.”

This time it’s Tobio’s turn to squeeze harder.

“Apparently one of my friends was really into the occult and they found a reanimation spell. They couldn’t deal with the thought of me gone so they came into the cemetery late at night on the full moon and cast it. They weren’t able to get the exact ingredients, but the spell worked… kind of. I came back as a skeleton but I couldn’t leave the cemetery. They apologized profusely and promised to find some way to fix this. I don’t know what happened to them but seeing as it’s been over fifty years now… I bet they’ve moved on. I hope so at least. I hope they have a wonderful house filled with cats and grimoires. Maybe even a familiar! How cool would that be?”

Damn it. Shouyou’s more worried about his old friend having a comfortable life than his own freedom? All of Tobio’s anguish to being betrayed flies away at that moment, replaced by the sorrow of knowing his best friend’s been stuck here for over fifty years and hasn’t gone into despair or insanity. Sure, the cemetery is big with all kinds of animal visitors, but it can’t be more than twenty city blocks. How frustrating is it to see the world change through the wrought iron fences only to be stuck in a practically unchanging park-like cemetery?

He can’t help but shed a few tears.

“Don’t cry for me. I’m a whole lot luckier than most. How many sixty-plus-year-olds do you know with such glorious hair? Besides… I’ve got the best friend in the whole world right beside me.”

And now for the full-on waterworks. The skeleton’s eye sockets go wide and he flails his arms in panic until Tobio grabs them both.

“You can’t go and say stuff like that and expect me _not_ to cry! You’re too good for this world!”

Judging from how he sits back down with a soft look, that was probably a good thing to say.

“You’ve got it all backwards. You’re the one who’s too good for this world.”

So what if a fourteen-year-old boy and a skeleton are crying at the base of an ancient elm tree? They both needed it and they’re not bothering anyone.

People can be cruel but best friends know how to make it better.


End file.
